


His Father's Eyes

by maeusetod



Category: All For the Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: M/M, angst-but not really, set after the books
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-03
Updated: 2016-04-03
Packaged: 2018-05-31 01:00:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6449134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maeusetod/pseuds/maeusetod
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes Neil had thought about, when and under which circumstances he would hear the name Nathaniel again, but he had not expected it to happen like this.</p>
            </blockquote>





	His Father's Eyes

Neil was freezing. He tried to hide his hands in his Foxhole hoody as good as he could. It was the peach colored one, the one that once had been orange, but had been washed to often and Neil’s favorite since it was the first Wymack bought them. Andrew was walking next to him, with nothing more than a shirt and his wristbands and did not seem to mind the weather. Neil sometimes wondered, if he even felt a difference in temperature, or if he just dressed in something that fitted the season. He wished Andrew was wearing a jacket so that he could steal it. The wind was even stronger now that they had reached the park and Neil almost regretted agreeing to take a walk. He still did not quite understand why Andrew likes walking around without any destination, but he had long stopped to ask. Neil tried to ignore the cold and concentrate on the presence of Andrew next to him, on the smell of the cigarette and the sound of his breathing and with every step he tried to get a little closer, to invade Andrew’s privacy a bit more. 

“You could just tell me,” Andrew suddenly said.

“What?” Neil asked. 

Andrew just shook his head and shifted towards him, so that both their upper arms were touching. Neil almost forgot to take the next step and stumbled awkwardly. They were walking like glued together and Neil tried to match his steps to Andrew’s so that they could walk in sync, when they heard the high-pitched screams. It didn’t take long to spot the group of girls, each a mobile in their hands, smiling in joy. Neil regretted colouring his hair silver-blue, shaved short on both sides, but rather long in the middle. He had seen Renee’s colourful hair one day and had thought about all the time he had to colour it because it was needed not because he liked the colour, or because he wanted to and then he had made the bold decision to change it completely. Nicky only referred to him as Jack Frost now, but he didn’t mind because Andrew liked the change. Not that he had said anything to Neil, but Neil knew it because when they lay in bed Andrew now tended to run his hands through Neil’s hair. The downside was Neil was now even easier to spot as before and the amount of people wanting pictures and signatures seemed too continually ascent with every breath he took. 

“Coffee?” Neil asked.

Andrew didn’t answer, but changed his direction, so that they weren’t walking towards the girls, but rather towards the exit of the park. Hopefully they weren’t eager to follow. At least running away would keep him warm.

 

 

When they were finally inside a small cozy café not far from the park and Neil was heating his hands at the hot mug as the smell of his coffee got mixed with the smell of Andrew’s hot chocolate. He began to calm his mind thanks to the atmosphere as he noticed the shift in Andrew’s behavior. 

“Kevin tried to reach you,” Andrew told him, glaring at his phone as if it was an evil incarnate. 

“Oh, I switched off my phone. I hate this new thing,” he said fumbling it out of his pocket. He missed his old phone, how it felt in his jeans. They expected him to use this brand new smartphone now since he had made the deal to advertise it. And Nicky had somehow got hold of it one day and had made him an account on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and what else he found necessary and now this damn thing would not stop flashing notifications and beeping and vibrating and the last thing Neil wanted to do, was sit down and figure out how to manage a smartphone. 

“What’s wrong?” Neil asked him as he noticed Kevin’s numerous missed calls.

“Apparently there is someone who wants to speak to you,” Andrew told him and it was the tone Andrew used that let Neil flinch. Neil unmistakably knew it was not someone he wanted have a chat with.

“Who?” he asked, his expression stern as a million faces of people whose voices he never wanted to hear again rushed through his mind. 

“Let’s go,” Andrew said and stood up, phone still in his hand, but Neil just looked at him and didn’t move an inch. He knew that whoever wanted to talk to him, would eventually find him. There was no running away anymore. He had decided against him a while ago. But there was still a difference between not turning away from problems and facing them head on. Andrew stood there looking at him, waiting. He did not rush him, neither did he say something, but he was waiting for Neil to be ready and it was more than Neil asked for. 

As Neil was about to stand up Andrew told him to sit down again.

“He is coming here,” Andrew further explained. 

“Just Kevin,” he told him because he noticed that Neil had misunderstood him, thinking that whoever wanted to talk to him wanted to come. Andrew went to the counter and Neil watched him buying three pieces of cake. Neil had to smile as he observed how Andrew struggled to get the three plates back to their table, while three rather tall men blocked his way. Finally, he made it back and put the cake down and let Neil choose. He decided for the carrot cake. He could already hear Kevin complaining of how the two of them ruined his perfectly balanced diet plan. 

When his cake was half-eaten, he noticed Kevin’s arrival because people started to turn their heads towards the entrance. Andrew and he might have a few very dedicated fans, but it was still no comparison to the attention Kevin got. When Kevin just made a disapproving look at the cake, but shoved the first bite into his mouth when he wasn’t even sitting, Neil knew things were getting serious. 

“Those are for you,” Kevin said and gave Neil an envelope. Neil tried to open it, but his fingers started to shake. He had wanted so much that his past stayed in the past and was afraid of opening not only the envelope, but also some old wounds. Andrew snatched it away and ripped it open.

“Flight tickets?” Andrew asked.

“Someone came and gave me this. Said some family of you wants to meet with you and everything was already prepared,” Kevin said with his why-can’t-we-just-play-exy-face. 

“Who?” Neil asked and was surprised that his voice wasn’t trembling.

“I don’t know, but they said it’s about your family,” Kevin answered.

“Then why didn’t you ask?” Andrew said, almost shouting. Some more heads turned towards them.

“Because it’s for Neil to take care of,” he replied and Neil knew he was telling the truth. There was nothing Kevin or even Andrew could do about it. It was his past that haunted him and it was him who decided he face it.

“Where to?” Neil asked.

“Warsaw,” Andrew said but a-fourteen-hour-flight was what he meant. 

“Poland?” Neil asked back, not expecting this. He knew that his surname, or better his former surname was of Polish origin, but he had no idea he had family there. He couldn’t remember to ever have met someone, who visited from Poland. 

 

 

As the screen in front of them showed how to fasten and unfasten the seatbelt, Andrew opened a bottle of pills. 

“You know, maybe you should do some therapy?” Neil proposed.

“As you would say: I’m fine,” Andrew told him, put three of the pills in his mouth and swallowed them dry. The plane took a turn to the right and rolled in direction of the starting lane. 

“You didn’t have to come along,” Neil said and knew it was a lie. He would never have made the trip without Andrew. He was afraid, who was waiting for him on the other side of the planet and if he would ever use the tickets back. He looked at Andrew, who by now had his eyes closed and was sleeping. The plane gathered in speed and lifted off the ground.

Neil opened a folder and tried to concentrate on Exy-statistics and loose himself in the thought of winning the following matches, when the season started again. It was working for three hours into the flight, but then he started to get more and more anxious. He played with the thought to just take the same pills as Andrew and sleep the time of, but he had no idea what Andrew had taken and was afraid to be knocked out when they landed. He started to watch a movie out of the collection they offered for the flight, but couldn’t really concentrate on the plot and turned it off half an hour later. He was getting restless and started to turn around in the small space of the seat and had no idea on how he should survive the next six or seven hours. He closed his eyes and hoped to fall asleep even if he knew it was hopeless because all he could think about was the Butcher and all the people who he had met when he was still living with him. Another few hours of tossing and turning he woke up to a restless dream about everyone he looked in the eyes, their eyes changing into cold blue ones. At least they were now landing soon and he could finally get out of the plane. 

 

 

“Maybe we should have learned Polish instead of Russian,” Neil contemplated as they were making their way toward the exit and Neil was hearing people speaking the language, but not understanding a word. He was reminded of the time where he had been traveling with his mother and how she had told him he had to learn to speak German as fast as possible. 

“No,” Andrew answered and Neil knew he didn’t say no because it was unreasonable or not possible, but for the fact that Andrew loved hearing certain things in a certain language. 

“Yeah, maybe not,” Neil acknowledged, walking towards the cabs. It was cold and windy outside. Grey clouds covered the whole sky and the sun was nowhere to be seen. They went to the first cab and the cab driver opened the car boot. Andrew stored their suitcases away and they sat down in the backseat. Neil still felt strange when he was in a foreign car and Andrew knowing this let his knee touch Neil’s making sure he knew Andrew was right beside him. 

“You are Exy?” the cab driver asked. It took Neil a moment until he understood what he wanted to say.

“Yeah, we play Exy,” he answered.

The cab driver went on to explain something about a new Exy-stadium and something about money from the European Union, but Neil was only half listening and didn’t understand everything anyway. He stared out of the window watching the scenery in front of him. He noticed they were getting closer to the city center as he saw bright flashy advertisements covering grey buildings and a tall high-rise building with an architecture he couldn’t quite place. 

The cab driver stopped at a building form the early 20th century, coloured in pretty light yellow, which apparently was the hotel they were staying at. Neil paid while Andrew got their suitcases and they made their way towards the inside. The foyer was held in the same colour with four small palms in the middle. It was not a plant Neil would connect with a country this far north-east but he was too tired to further think about it. They checked in as fast as they could, left their suitcases in their room and left the hotel again. Neil wanted to get over with the family reunion as fast as he could because he couldn’t take the anxiety any longer and he didn’t need to explain it to Andrew because he just knew. 

 

 

As they stood in front of the house in the outskirts of Warsaw a woman was opening the door. Neil had expected someone that looked like his father, someone intimidating and poised. What he saw was a petit woman in her mid-forties with hair in different colors of red styled in an asymmetrical cut, walking towards him. The only resemblance she carried was her eyes. They had the same piercing blue colour. However, they did not look cold and dead, but very much alive. 

“I’m Małgorzata Manaszczuk. I’m your dad’s cousin. You were a small child when we last met, Nathaniel. Now look at you, grown up to such a handsome young man” she said in heavy accented English as she made an attempt to hug him. It was stopped by Andrew, who somehow had shoved himself between Neil and the woman. 

Sometimes Neil had thought about, when and under which circumstances he would hear this name again. What had been on his mind, where people using it to mock him, people using it to threaten him, people who wanted to dig up the past and lay it out in front of him. But here he was, hearing it again of a person smiling at him full of love and pride and he just froze. His mind went totally blank. 

“I’m so sorry, its Neil now, isn’t it,” he said, her tone somewhat sad and remorseful. She led them into the house and told them to sit down at a grand wooden dining table. It was packed with different dishes. There was food enough to feed all the foxes. 

“How I wanted you to grow up differently. But sometimes we can’t change things and we make mistakes and that it is for us to choose what we make with the live we are given,” she continued. 

“I would have invited you sooner, but your father would never have allowed it. I only have been to America once, when you were still small and your father had paid for everything and what a big thing it had been to travel to America. But he had wanted to be rewarded for it, you see. He wanted to have my husband’s company. We make windows you know. If it wasn’t for my husband’s quick reaction to get back home as soon as we could, things would have gotten bad,” she told him, but was interrupted by a small old woman, with short grey hair holding a plate full of dumplings that smelled like bacon and butter. The woman said something in Polish, but Neil didn’t understand a word. 

“This is my mother Agnieszka,” the woman told him. Neil forgot her name and did not dare to ask again. He was still not sure what to make out of this whole meeting. It was not what he had expected not in the slightest. He stood up and Andrew did the same. As things were friendly and harmless right know, he wanted to leave it that way. This time Andrew was not quick enough to save him from a hug and some kisses on his cheek. But to his surprise she went to Andrew, told him something in Polish and hugged him to. Andrew, who was neither expecting this nor had the intention to hurt a fragile old woman could do absolutely nothing but endure it. Neil couldn’t help, but smile. 

They sat down again and were asked to try whatever they liked. Neil wasn’t hungry, but thought it impolite not to eat anything. Then, the woman disappeared and returned with vodka and shot glasses. Neil didn’t want to drink. Even though he did drink once in a while, he was still couldn’t handle alcohol well, but it seemed he had no choice. As he emptied his glass, it was filled once again. The same thing seemed to be happening with his plate. The moment he finished something and said that it tasted great another load found his way onto his plate, before he could even say something. 

Some shots and some hilarious stories about a grandmother he had never met later, Neil decided that even if he would never be a Wesninski again, darkness and greed was not something that was running through a bloodline. It was something you choose for yourself and even if it was too early to call those people he just had met his family, he couldn’t deny that he started to enjoy the stay. They detested his father the same way he did and they had suffered through him and even if he wasn’t ready to share his side of the story he stayed to listen. 

And while Neil got to know more about his family’s history, from his grandfather running away from a life in communism, leaving the rest of his family behind, to his cousins’s husband who had lost his life due to his father because he had wanted to save his company, Andrew had taken his pleasure in tasking calorie-heavy Polish food, which let the old woman’s face gleam in delight. 

 

 

The best thing of flying away was the feeling of returning home again. Neil couldn’t wait to be inside the plane again. They had used the remaining days for sightseeing and eating a lot of Polish sweets. Neil could only guess how much was packed in Andrew’s suitcase as well as souvenirs for the foxes that they had brought. 

They had almost two hours to wait before their flight was taking off though and were taking their time to get to the gate, when Neil’s phone went crazy again. Neil stopped and fumbled it out of his dark jeans.

“More family?” Andrew asked him.

“More fangirls,” Neil answered, as he tried to get in control of the new messages that appeared to be not only in English, German, French and Russian but also in Polish now. 

“God, I hate you,” Andrew said and continued to walk towards the gate. 

“I know. Coffee?”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading.


End file.
